Brave New World: A Futurist Book About The Society

Brave New World is a book about society. But it is a futurist book. That means that the story happens around 2540. It is an imaginary world. It is shown in a special way so that we can discuss if it is more a utopia or a dystopia. A utopia is an idealistic way to see or imagine the world. We often imagine it without any problems and in the way we want. But is it realistic in the real world? A dystopia is actually the opposite. It is a world where you can’t find happiness. An imaginary world with lots of defaults. How does the author write his book? Was it to denounce the world where he lived or to imagine the world he would live in. Those are some questions we can ask ourselves.

First of all, the mechanism of this world is well calculated. The goal of it is that everything is organized to be compatible with the other things. So that we can’t have any conflict. The people are created to have their functions and to be happy with it. They have no feelings because feelings are often the reason of the conflicts. Their deaths are programmed, and it is a normal thing. Nobody is sad of the death because they aren’t related to somebody and have no relationship in between them. They are different types of people. They are classified and much different form one to another. It is a utopia because it is a world without any conflict and where everything happens in a normal way. People have no problem in their life and are happy with it. And even if they are unhappy they take the medicament “Soma” which makes you happy and helps you to forget your eventual problems. It is the easiest way to be happy and do not think of your problems. Everyone would love to have this in real life so that it would be much easier.

In contrast, this idyllic world shows how amazing it could be but doesn’t reflect the real world. It is impossible to have only one religion, one land, one language and many other things in the whole world. Every person in this world have two parents which are regrouped in a family. The family is important and is a motor in our lives. In Brave New World, they are born mechanically so they don’t have this family aspect. But a big part of happiness is from the relationship you can have with your family, friends, colleagues, etc.

Another part of happiness comes from the multiple liberties we have. Liberty of choice, liberty of speaking, liberty of religion, etc. In the book they are “prisoners” of their live. They are not even able to choose their job, their friends or their wife/husband. It is a kind of dictatorship. For example, John has a mother, and the other people can’t understand it because they don’t have parents. John becomes famous at first time but then starts to don’t like this world, so he decides to go away of the civilization to have more time for him. But it comes that he starts to hit himself and finishes to suicide. This really shows how pathetic this world is and how incompatible it is with the actual world.

Moreover, the way how they deal with their problems is pathetic, because it is a drug and a drug is a substance which makes you feel and see the things differently. If you take that, you’ll be hidden of the reality. And if you need to hide the reality, it is because there is a problem in it. Once your drug doesn’t affect you anymore, you’ll be again confronted with the reality, so you’ll have to take another dose to hide again the problems. That comes more and more recurrent and you become addict. Once you are addict, it is hard to stop it. This is a kind of vicious circle that affects your body and your brain. Happiness can’t be found in a substance or in a product. It has to be natural.

To conclude, Brave New World can be a utopia or dystopia. It can change between two people. Those who are spectators of their life will find these ideas a utopia but those who are actors of their life will find it a dystopia. It is a way of laziness because you don’t ever decide something, you just follow what the others say. If you prefer to take decisions and live the life you want to, you won’t find your way in this world. In contradiction, the world we live in accepts the ones who come with new ideas and create what they want. This is probably a way to find happiness in their life. Aldous Huxley wrote this book in an ironic way. He wanted to show people how disastrous it would be to live in a world like that. But there are also some positive things in his reflection. The peace of this world is the biggest aspect of the world. We are all sacred of wars, terrorism, etc. This is a thing you won’t find in this story. You can’t live alone your whole life. You always need support of someone if you are in a bad mood or a bad situation. The liberty of choice opens so much different ways of life. Happiness in our world is something precious you can’t avoid. You become what you make. Another question is how would it be financed ? Who pays the buildings, the food, the electricity, etc. Who makes which work ? There are so much settings that it is purely impossible to change from our world to Aldous Huxley’s imaginary world.